New Scientist


OpenAI announces 722 mathematical discoveries in one go

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 10:29:19 +0000

AI has been growing ever more capable in mathematics, but now OpenAI has released hundreds of papers at the same time – to the astonishment of mathematicians


Nobel prize in chemistry awarded for work on mirror molecules

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:58:35 +0000

Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have been honoured for their work on making molecules form the correct mirror images


Shoes may change the structure of our ankle bones

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Wearing shoes seems to affect the volume of a spongy network within a bone in our ankles, which could affect the validity of previous research into the evolution of walking


The telescope that could reveal what dark matter and dark energy are

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

The Roman telescope is NASA’s newest space observatory. Every 10 months, it will get the equivalent of about 1000 years' worth of Hubble observations. Will it find the answers to our questions about dark matter and dark energy? 


Impossibly fast-moving stars are revealing the Milky Way’s mysterious heart

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Near the centre of the Milky Way, a swarm of stars hurtles around a supermassive black hole at extraordinary speeds. Studying them could be the key to understanding our galaxy


The most ambitious ideas to save the world from El Niño 

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

A monster El Niño is brewing in the Pacific Ocean – but there may be ways we can stop the worst impacts from occurring


Nobel prize in physics awarded for discovery of high-energy neutrinos

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:26:02 +0000

The 2026 Nobel prize in physics has been won by Francis Halzen for his work on neutrinos, which serve as 'ghost-like messengers from the cosmos'


Extinct yak relative discovered from DNA in Denisova cave

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Genetic analysis of hundreds of tiny bone fragments found in the same cave that yielded the first fossil remains of the Denisovans has revealed that the region was once also home to a previously unknown species of yak


Can we harness the brain’s deep-cleaning system to prevent Alzheimer’s?

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

The glymphatic system is the brain's recently discovered network for flushing out toxins. Now, we're uncovering surprising ways to boost it to protect brain health


AI finds bafflingly complex but beautiful symmetrical Venn diagram

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:40:13 +0000

Creating rotationally symmetrical Venn diagrams of increasing size is a long-standing mathematical challenge - now an amateur has used AI to generate the largest ones yet